Two Serious Ladies
- Author: Jane Bowles (United States)
- Book type: American novel from 1943
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Essentials
- Length: 272 pages
- Format: paperback / ebook
- Prize: £ 9.99
- Editorial Rating: ∗∗∗∗∗ (excellent)
- Order book from: Amazon / Bol
Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies reviews
- “My favourite book. I can”t think of a modern novel that seems more likely to become a classic.” (Tennessee Williams)
- “Jane Bowles”s literary output, small but perfect, puts her on a stylistic planet all her own.” (The New Yorker)
- “The book I give as a gift. It feels like giving someone an exotic fruit.” (Sheila Heti)
- “A modernist cult classic.” (Guardian)
Blurb of the 1943 novel by Jane Bowles
Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy.
Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night.
Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible.
For Mrs Copperfield – a trip to Panama, where she abandons her husband for love of a local prostitute. For Miss Goering – a move to a squalid little house on an island and a series of sordid encounters with strangers. Both go to pieces -and both realise this is something they’ve wanted to do for years.
Jane Bowles was born as born Jane Sydney Auer, February 22, 1917 
in New York City. She has long had an underground reputation as one of the truly original writers of this century. She lived in Tangier, Morocco, with her husband, writer Paul Bowles, from 1952 until her death on May 4, 1973 in a clinic in Málaga, Spain at the age of 56. She was primarily a playwright and Two Serious Ladies was her only novel.